IOWA CITY, Iowa - A $1 million donation by the University of Iowa Health Alliance will bring better healthcare to rural Iowa in the near future, according to UI officials.

The gift was announced Friday morning on the medical campus of the University of Iowa. It will go towards funding the Iowa Physician Loan Repayment Program, which was established in 2012 by the Iowa legislature.

The program relieves students of their undergraduate and medical school debt if the student agrees to practice in a rural town, at least 20 miles from any of Iowa's larger cities. The former student is then required to spend at least five years working in the community after graduation to participate in the program.

"We're going to be able to train outstanding physicians and put them in places that need this kind of healthcare," UI president Sally Mason said.

The program is expected to bring 20 doctors from the University of Iowa and Des Moines University to rural communities across Iowa.

"They're very well trained to join these communities," Dr. Debra Schwinn, Dean of the Carver College of Medicine, said. "It truly is a partnership that benefits the students and the communities."